The Programmed Achievement Study System (PASS), based on positively reinforcing attempts at mastery, was introduced and empirically tested to determine its validity. It makes use of traditional learning principles by providing rewards (bonus points) contingent upon reaching specified mastery criteria. (Author/LBH)

This research compares two popular mastery-based instructional programs: Programmed Student Achievement and Total Mastery Learning. The primary objective is to determine which mastery technique results in the best classroom performance of college students in an introductory psychology course. (Author/RM)

Studied were a self-paced section and a teacher-paced section of an undergraduate educational psychology course. By assessing number of trials to criterion, the investigators concluded that the self-paced method was more effective. (MLH)

Lists the instructional features of the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI)--self-pacing, mastery of material, student proctors, motivational devices, stress upon written and spoken work--and describes their use in an introductory psychology course at Black Hawk College. Points out higher level of achievement and higher dropout rate as…

The SIU School of Medicine has completed a five-year experience applying an objectives-based approach to an entire curriculum. This paper describes the instructional system and the procedures for monitoring, maintaining, and improving it and provides available outcome data. (Author/LBH)

Presents abstracts of 17 documents from "Resources in Education" on programed instruction, personalized system of instruction, and computer-assisted instruction. (PD)

A survey of relevant research strongly suggests that the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) offers considerable potential for community college instruction. It has five main features: students move at their own rates of speed, utilize written study guides, demonstrate mastery of each unit before continuing, meet with proctors for periodic…

This study compared three instructional strategies for teaching music intervals to beginning music majors: programed instruction using a linear programed text; mastery learning using computer-assisted instruction (CAI); and self-practice using a textbook. Subjects were tested on immediate and delayed (48 hour) retention. Mastery learning by CAI…

Three groups of college students operated under different contingencies in the same classroom. The Programmed Achievement (PA) condition required students to show 100 percent mastery on 12 chapter quizzes, at the risk of grade loss. Control students took quizzes with no requirement for mastery, and a group of low achievers tried both methods. The…

Designed as an introduction to a symposium on the appropriateness of mastery learning as a technique of social studies instruction, this paper reviews research on the variables related to mastery learning in order to provide a basis for systematic symposium discussion. Brief research reviews are included on the following variables: materials,…

This article compares the findings of two administrations of a questionnaire designed to determine how community colleges were responding in terms of attitudes and methods to the flood of poorly prepared students entering under open admissions policies. The questionnaire was sent to a 20 percent random sample of two-year colleges nationwide;…

"Cooperative Student Instruction" (CSI) is a form of peer instruction providing reinforcement, immediate application, and personal attention to adult literacy and basic education students. CSI builds self-concept; the learner takes responsibility for his/her own education and that of others. Included are a model for lesson design and…

The Tangipahoa Parish Migrant Education Program measures individual skill deficiencies with activities intended to reinforce and help students master or complete a particular skill. Designed to teach students to assume responsibility for the next step of achievement, skill activities and supplementary teacher materials are leveled, color coded,…

Ascertaining changes in cognitive correlates of learning as students advanced through hierarchical instruction, 24 individual difference measures were obtained from 166 Navy trainees who had completed a computer-managed mastery course in electricity and electronics. Three types of cognitive characteristic measures were used in the study--tests of…

Faculty members are the most important resource for attaining high student achievement and retention rates. At the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC), interviews with instructors who achieved over 90% retention for the Spring 1979 semester revealed that their courses were well-structured, used materials related to students' needs, and did not rely…